Ricky Jean is not my lineman

The team announced last night they have released Ricky Jean-Francois.

It’s not all that surprising from a financial perspective – “Ricky Jean” as Coach Gruden affectionately referred to him, was set to count $4 million against the cap this season. For a player who annually logged around 400 snaps that’s a hard sell to the number-crunchers in the Front Office.

Playing time aside, there’s another side to this release it’s hard not to take notice of. Jean-Francois is not one to shy away from confrontation, and doesn’t keep his thoughts to himself very well. He’s been vocal with his criticism of the team on more than one occasion – most recently over the releases of Chris Baker and DeSean Jackson, and also the teams inability, or unwillingness to sign Kirk Cousins to a long-term deal. With the ongoing drama surrounding the team right now, it’s hardly a surprise to see players with such outwardly negative opinions get dumped.

Maybe in this instance he was simply too honest for his own good.

On the field, I was always a fan of the potential he could show at times. He would frequently find his way into the backfield but was often guilty of not being able to finish from there. I labelled him as one of the top cap casualty candidates here, but also advocated giving him a shot at a larger role. Seems the team didn’t see it that way.

So it’s a fond farewell to Ricky Jean. Along with Gruden bumbling around the pronunciation of his name, I’ll miss his unashamed straight-up honesty. I think we can all agree that between he and Big Swaggy being shown the door, while the defense might not necessarily end up being worse, it probably will be a bit duller.